Training Log Archive: Nadim

Event: QOC: Wheaton - Canceled due to park conditions.
 

William B. Umstead State Park, Raleigh, NC. Driving into the park late, I rushed a warm-up from the car to the start, then went back to the car for my epunch and the back to the start--again. For the 3rd time this weekend it was not a good way to start. Fortunately, Peggy took my start time and I was able to take hers 4 minutes later.

William B. Umstead State Park, Raleigh, NC. BOK: Sycamore Scramble Classic. My rush to the start line hadn't put me in a good frame of mind. I felt pressure to get going fast and it got me into trouble right away. On the first, short leg, I knew to look for the first control on the right, at the end of the reentrant that I'd dropped down to out of the start, but I ended on the left side of it. Going slower through green areas to #2 and #3 just heightened my sense that I wasn't doing well and needed to go faster--I was tired from the day before and lacked spring in my legs. I climbed more than needed to #4 (to the right) and converged with Peggy's more direct route there, just ahead of her. In a continuance of a well documented frequent occurrance, I proceeded to make an error going to #5 after running away from her at #4. The 1:15,000 scale had thrown me a bit; when I angled up a hill instead of taking it more directly, I had expected to cross a trail and never saw it. This convinced me that I'd made an error when in fact, I hadn't gone far or straight enough. I doubled-back as a result and took a while to relocate. From there I compounded the error staying low along the main creek instead of going more directly. I was still a bit off leaving #5 but I hit #6, #7, #8, and #9 pretty well. I was happy running down a long reentrant toward #10, expecting to see more water and a junction before the control. At a reentrant junction, I thought I was at a higher one so I went on, only catching myself when I checked my bearing. I doubled back for another minute loss. I missed the nice road route option to #11. I nearly spiked it going through the geen but even Peggy's pace on the road route was faster than my more direct and difficult to navigate way. Confusion continued when I didn't see a road intersection on the way to #12 but I hit #13 and #14 well.

This wasn't such a good run for me. I really need to improve my technique and self control because I continue to have 1-2 big errors/race, the cause of which is usually rooted in running too fast. I probably had 7 minutes of time loss today and ran over 9K on this 7.3K course. At the awards places were given for cummulative times over all 3 races. I wasn't initially called-up because on the results printout my times had oddly shown-up on two different rows. It had something to do with the way my epunch was in the database for the Middle Distance race on Saturday though there was no apparent problem after that race. After the system correction, I was awarded first in M45+ but I was very fortunate that others didn't have better runs. I'll need to work much better to place in future A-meet events and even local events.

Red Classic - Splits